EWC Junner

Monday, 6 November 2017

In the category of reluctant
reader - surely the bane of every teacher and school librarian - boys usually
outnumber girls. How can you coax them into discovering there’s a whole wealth
of interesting, not to mention inspiring, information out there in the world of
books?

Introducing them to books about real people who came from
backgrounds the majority of children can recognise may not complete the transformation
from reluctant to eager reader [and more enthusiastic scholar?], but it could
be a big step in the right direction.

The brilliant movie
‘Chariots of Fire’, which cleared the decks at the Oscars after its debut in
1981, brought Eric Liddell’s athletic achievements wide recognition. While, of
course, the movie focuses on Eric’s famous race at the 1924 Olympics in Paris,
it portrays both the athletic greatness and spiritual integrity of the Scottish
missionary.

‘The Flying Scotsman’ as
Eric Henry Liddell was affectionately known, was born in Tiensing, China, where
his parents, the Rev. James and Mrs. Liddell, were both missionaries. Eric
attended the local elementary school before being sent to join his brother Rob at
Eltham College in England. It was here Eric first showed his athletic prowess,
particularly his speed on the track.

While studying for a science degree at Edinburgh University, Eric
competed for the university in rugby and on the track.

He was chosen to represent Scotland in both fields; unfortunately, though he was outstanding in each sport, his studies left him no time for both rugby and running. Forced to choose between them, Eric decided on running. His distances were the 220 yards and the 100 yards but he truly excelled at the latter.

Eric was an
automatic choice for the 1924 Paris Olympics;

his elation turned to dismay, however,
when he learned the 100 yards heats were to be held on a Sunday. In those days many
Scots observed Sunday as truly a day of rest. Sunday Dinner would be prepared
as far as possible the evening before! Active outstide games like football and
skipping rope were frowned upon. To run on Sunday was against Eric’s Christian
ethics. What could he do?

It was suggested
he run the 440 yards, a quarter of a mile. Eric hadn’t trained for this distance,
but he had a plan for success. Tension ran high. On the morning of the race,
one of the masseuses – from the American team I believe - slipped Eric a folded
paper on which he had written an encouraging message and which Eric recognised
as the masseuse’s variation on1 Samuel 2:30: ‘He that honours me, him I will honour’.

Eric’s plan was to sprint the first two hundred yards of
the 440 to get as far ahead of the field as possible and then, he is quoted as
saying, he left it up to God to keep him fast. He won the gold medal in the 440
handily, and the bronze in the 220.

The following year Eric
returned to missionary work in China where Japanese aggression was making life increasingly
dangerous. In 1941, as the Japanese advanced, Eric sent his family to safety in
Canada while he remained to work at a poor station with his brother, who was a
doctor. They were overworked, lacking much of the medicine, equipment and food
they needed to help the desperate Chinese who came day after day seeking help.

In 1943, Eric was interned along with many others when the
Japanese invaded the station. Despite the privations, Eric kept up morale; he
taught Bible School, taught science to the children in the camp, and organised
games. Overworked, exhausted, and undernourished, Eric developed an inoperable
brain tumour. His earthly race finished, he died in February, 1945, just five months before the camp was liberated.

***

How many Puerto Rican
kids or kids of Puerto Rican descent have not heard of the great Roberto Enrique
Clemente Walker?

Roberto, born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, was the youngest of
seven children. When he was old enough he helped his father, a sugar crops
foreman, by loading and unloading trucks. Always interested in baseball, Roberto
joined Puerto Rico’s amateur league when he was sixteen years old and played
for the Ferdinand Juncos team. In 1952 he signed with the winter team,Cangrejeros de Santuce. This was a franchise of the Puerto Rican

Professional
Baseball League. While he was there the Brooklyn Dodgers offered Roberto a contract
with one of the team’s Triple A affiliates.

This meant a
move to the Montréal Royals farm team for Roberto but he never did play for the
Dodgers. When Pittsburgh Pirates scout Clyde Sukeforth saw Clemente, he told
the Royals’ manager that the Pirates were going to finish last in the league,
therefore had the pick of the rookies, and he was picking Roberto Clemente
Walker, no question.

His beginnings
in Pittsburgh were not the easiest for Roberto. The winter before his rookie
season with the Pirates a drunk driver slammed into his car at an intersection
in Puerto Rico and left him with a back injury which forced him to sit out many
games while he recovered. Because he was black, and spoke little English, the
sports media and some of the team gave him a hard time; announcers kept
referring to him as Bob, or Bobby, despite his preferring Roberto. His response to this was he had been raised never
to discriminate against anyone because of their ethnicity. As he proved his
worth, Pittsburgh loved Roberto; his number was changed from 13 to 20, the
number of letters in his full name.

In 1958 he signed for the U.S. Marine Corps. Under their
rigorous training he gained ten pounds and had no back problems. By then
Roberto was so invaluable to the Pirates team that State Senator John M. Walker
sent a letter to U.S. Senator Hugh Scott requesting his early release from the
Marines in 1959. Roberto remained a Marine Reserve until September, 1964.

His rewards in baseball were many,
culminating when he earned the World Series Most Valuable Player trophy, yet
far outflanking those are his rewards in how he has lived, in what he has done
to help others. He helped financially, never to gain recognition but simply
because he could, and wanted to. He cared about children especially; his dream
was to build a ‘Sports City’ where young Puerto Ricans would have access to
coaching in many sports, facilities, and encouragement. In the off-season he taught
baseball and ran free clinics for kids in Puerto Rico, especially those from
poorer families. He loved his country and did much to raise the status of
Puerto Rico and Latin America in the world’s eyes. He was involved in a great
deal of charity work, and when Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, was hit by a
massive earthquake on 23rd December, 1972 he immediately began
arranging relief flights. When he heard the aid on the first three flights had
been siphoned off by the corrupt officials and never reached the victims he
decided to go on the fourth flight himself, in hopes his presence would shame
them into honesty. On December 31st he set off on an overloaded plane
with an incompetent crew. It crashed into the Atlantic Ocean immediately after
takeoff due to engine failure. Roberto’s body has never been recovered, but his
legacy lives on in the selfless work he did during his lifetime.

***

And now we come to the
last of our sports heroes, who was in his own words a really rotten kid, Louis
Zamperini. With co-author David Rensin, in his book ‘Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give
In’ he speaks for those kids who are seen to be seriously off the tracks.

Born in America of
Italian parents who spoke Italian at home, he went to kindergarten in
California speaking very little English, and very poorly at that. He hated
recess when the other kids would surround him to taunt and jeer, to punch and
kick him over his poor English, his wiry

hair, and big
ears. Eventually his father made him a punch bag, so that Louis learned to
fight back – and win.

His older
brother Pete was the model son who could do no wrong, and Louis the changeling
child who could do no right. He felt he could never live up to Pete, so Louis
set out to be as bad as he possibly could be. He was forever getting into
trouble with the police, with school, and with his parents. One would think
Pete might get fed up with Louis but he never did. He loved his little brother
and when all three of the authorities mentioned above were at their wits end,
Pete took Louis to the local steel mill, where the workers ‘looked hot, greasy,
and dirty’. Louis was aghast. He didn’t want to end up like that, and Pete
pointed out that’s exactly where he would end up, unless he smartened up. He
warned Louis that no one could force him to turn his life around – he had to
want to do that himself.

The school
officials decided to give Louis another chance, especially after Pete suggested
sports. Too small for football, Louis was entered in an interclass race to run
the 660 yards with the promise if he ran, his school slate would be wiped
clean. He ran. He came in last, in pain and suffering from having smoked since
he was six years old. But the running bug had caught him. He ran, and in
running and eventually winning, he found self-respect. He set himself to learn
at school, recognizing the importance of education.

Adrift on a
raft in the Pacific Ocean for many days before being captured by the Japanese
in WWll, Louis endured the brutality of their prison camps. Beaten day after
day, he stubbornly refused to give in. When he was finally liberated and
returned to America, at first it was great and then it appeared Louis was once
again on the slippery slopes. Until his wife persuaded him to hear Billy
Graham. Louis finally realised hatred consumes and destroys the person who
hates, and accepted Christ in his life. He worked tirelessly to help young people
improve their lives, applying Christ’s teaching of love and tolerance, tough
yet encouraging.

***

All pictures
are, to the best I can ascertain, in the public domain. And to those who query
why my name isn’t on the authors list, it’s because Chris started this blog,
and I don’t want to mess it up.